In the present study we focused our attention on the family of hydroxycarboxylic acid (HCA) receptors, a GPCR family of three members, of which the HCA2 and HCA3 receptors share 95% high sequence identity but differ considerably in C-terminus length with HCA3 having the longest tail. The two receptors were expressed and analysed for their activation profile in Saccharomyces cerevisiae MMY yeast strains that have different G protein Gα subunits. The hHCA2 receptor was promiscuous in its G protein coupling preference. In the presence of nicotinic acid the hHCA2 receptor activated almost all G protein pathways except Gαq (MMY14). However, the Gα protein coupling profile of the hHCA3 receptor was less promiscuous, as the receptor only activated Gαi1 (MMY23) and Gαi3 (MMY24) pathways. We then constructed two mutant receptors by 'swapping' the short (HCA2) and long (HCA3) C-terminus. The differences in HCA2 and HCA3 receptor activation and G protein selectivity were not controlled, however, by their C-terminal tails, as we observed only minor differences between mutant and corresponding wild-type receptor. This study provides new insights into the G protein coupling profiles of the HCA receptors and the function of the receptor's C terminus, which may be extended to other GPCRs.
Keywords: G protein coupling; G protein-coupled receptor; G(α)-engineered yeast cells; HCA(2); HCA(3); Hydroxycarboxylic acid receptors; LUF7159: 5-(Bis-thiophen-3-ylmethyl-amino)-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylic acid; Nicotinic acid; acifran: 5-methyl-4-oxo-5-phenylfuran-2-carboxylic acid (PubChem CID: 51576); nicotinic acid (NA): pyridine-3-carboxylic acid (PubChem CID: 938).
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